FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                         CIV
TUESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1996                             202-514-2007
                                           (TDD)     202-514-1888

CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES TO PAY $715,000 TO SETTLE CLAIMS THAT THEY
      FALSELY TOOK PART IN PROGRAMS FOR MINORITIES AND WOMEN

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Several construction companies involved
in federally-funded public works projects in the Seattle-Tacoma
area will pay the federal government $715,000 to settle two
lawsuits alleging that they used sham minority subcontracting
companies in order to qualify under state and local programs for
the socially and economically disadvantaged, the Department of
Justice announced today.
      The projects were the West Seattle Bridge replacement
project, the Seattle Transit Access project, and the upgrading of
the City of Tacoma Waste Water Treatment Plant, all of which took
place in the late 1980's.
      In one lawsuit, the government alleged that Peter Kiewit
Sons', Inc., an Omaha, Nebraska holding company, through its
operating subsidiaries, Kiewit Construction Group, Inc., of Omaha
and Kiewit Construction Company, Inc., and Kiewit Pacific Company
both of Seattle, falsely represented that it was using a minority
female owned company in Seattle, Global Consultants/Construction,
Inc. to do nearly $8 million worth of work when, in fact, Global
did not actually perform the work.
     In the other lawsuit, the United States alleged that General
Construction Company, formerly a division of Wright-Schuchart,
Inc., and now owned by Fletcher-General, Inc., a Seattle-based
firm, used 3A Industries, Inc., as a sham minority business
enterprise in order to meet participation goals on the EPA-funded
Tacoma Waste Water Plant.  3A, which was supposed to do $3
million worth of steel and concrete construction, was found to
have little more than small tools, brooms, and shovels at the
site.
     "Today's settlement demonstrates the government's commitment
to effective policing of the federal program for the socially and
economically disadvantaged," said Frank W. Hunger, Assistant U.S.
Attorney General in charge of the Civil Division.  Hunger thanked
the special agents and auditors of the Inspector General's Office
of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of
Transportation for their assistance in bringing these suits to a
successful conclusion.
     A motion to dismiss the government's lawsuits was filed
today in U.S. District Court in Seattle.  In the settlement, the 
construction companies did not admit liability or wrongdoing.  
     The Federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program
requires that where federal construction funds are granted by
federal agencies to local and state governments, minority and
woman business enterprises owned and controlled by socially and
economically disadvantaged individuals should have an opportunity
to receive a fair share of the federal funds in accordance with
regulations and goals established by the individual state and
local governments and approved by the federal agency.  In the
Tacoma project, for example, the city established a goal that 15%
of the roughly $45 million contract should go to minority firms
and 5% to companies owned and controlled by women.  Seattle
officials set a participation goal of 29.5 percent for
disadvantaged businesses in the approximately $33 million West
Seattle Bridge project, and 20 percent for the $54 million
Transit Access project.       
                              
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